Camden News: Junior Doctors

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Camden News - by TOM FOOT
Published: 24 July 2008

Ian Noble joins protesting medics by their tents at the Cecil Sharp House sleep-in demonstration

Junior docs’ sleep-in protest over digs

MORE than 150 medical students joined a national “sleep-in” protest in Camden Town on Friday as part of a campaign against the decision to axe their free accommodation.
Young medics at University College London pitched tents in the front garden of Cecil Sharp House in Regent’s Park Road following a demonstration in Trafalgar Square.
They are calling on the government to reverse its decision to stop free accommodation for first-year junior doctors from September.
Ian Noble, chairman of the UCL medical students committee, said: “Medical students feel betrayed by a government purporting to encourage the poorest in our society into university and particularly into the medical profession.”
He said the changes amounted to a 20 per cent pay cut for junior doctors.
UCL medical student Victoria Nowak said: “We are still hoping that the NHS employers enter into negotiations with the British Medical Association. Wales and Scotland have continued to offer free accommodation – we hope that England will follow their example.”
Under the old rules, hospitals provided on-site accommodation for junior doctors. It meant they were able to work on the wards within minutes.
But junior doctors now work to strict shift patterns and are no longer “on-call”.
The Review Body of Doctors and Dentists Remuneration, which sets doctors’ wages, said the need for free on-site accommodation was “archaic” as junior doctors did not need to live near the hospital.
University College London Hospital is to demolish its accommodation building in Huntley Street as part of its “phase 2” redevelopment.
A spokesman said the hospital had extended an offer of free accommodation for junior doctors until December as a “goodwill gesture”.

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